Putting off Life, One Country at a Time

Reberu Appu

One more year, and it’s time for me to tackle the great hairy beast of the Japanese language once more.

Two years ago, I sat and failed the Level 3 of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test.
Last year, I sat and passed the Level 2.
Now, this year, I am gearing up for the Level 1!

Will I pass? Will I fail? By all rights, it should be the latter. It’s absurdly hard, and requires a knowledge of kanji and grammar of a level I simply don’t have. But, after passing Level 2 last year, there was really nothing for it. The only direction is up!

So, I have lately been poring over my L1 kanji book, staring at screeds of tiny little pictures I’ve never seen before in my life, desperately trying to commit them to memory. It doesn’t help that the associated vocab is all new to me, too. Words like “bounce”, “leak”, “encourage”, “sharpen”, “gaze”, “untangle”, “penetrate”, “dangle”, “strike”, “knead”, “envelop”… there’s a ton of words in a language which make it nicer, but which aren’t strictly necessary, and in general conversation with a foreigner are usually skipped over and replaced with other, easier words or gestures. And as should be obvious from the above, I haven’t even gotten past the verbs yet.

And yet somehow, I’m going to have to try and excel in a country well-known for its own fantastic grasp of foreign languages. I have slightly less than four weeks. Wish me ruck!

I don't evny you, that seems difficult. n the other hand it is such an interesting language. Have you got any idea what the saying on the card is supposed to be and how it got translated in such a way?

Thanks!The passing grade is 70%. I did last year's exam as practice, but at my own pace and with a coffee, and got 56%. Doesn't look good.And I have no idea what the card is… it really looks like they just blew up a dictionary factory and collected the scraps.